Read with a handful of us cover to cover through the Old & New Testaments in one year and pray God's Word. About 3 chapters per day. 10 minutes. Listen to the readings on the app "Audio Bible." Join us as the "axe of Biblical Love thaws the frozen parts" (66LL) in our hearts. Our focus this year is "change." What does Biblical change look like in our lives from cover to cover?

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

April 2 "Holidays from the School of Christ "Judges 8-9

As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals...And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Gideon in return for all the good that he had done to Israel." Judges 8:33-34. If we do not continue to walk in God's ways, what are we living for? What do we want more than the Love of God? Life is not like a spicket that you turn off and on thinking you want to decide the distance between you and God. It seems that when the circumstances changed for the Israelites through new leadership, they bailed.

Fast Forward 2,000+ years. It happens to every one of us as we wrestle through this God thing. "Though I wouldn't have admitted it, even to myself, I didn't want God aboard. He was too heavy. I wanted Him approving from a considerable distance. I didn't want to be thinking of Him. I wanted to be free---like Gypsy. I wanted life itself, the color and fire and loveliness of life. And Christ now and then, like a loved poem I could read when I wanted to. I didn't want us to be swallowed up in God. I wanted holidays from the school of Christ." Sheldon Vanauken "A Severe Mercy"

Not only do we want our distance from God but we want our pacifiers---those things that draw us, make us feel closer to God. Nothing wrong with the vehicle. Everything wrong with the motive. "I had always served beauty. My wife and I together had loved beauty. Now, maybe, I was worshipping beauty in the Christian God will my wife was worshipping God. There may be danger in the love of beauty, though it seems treason to say it. Perhaps it can be a snare." And just maybe today we are worshipping music, health, success, ministry, justice, mission, even our children turning out right. Are we worshipping God or experiences?

COME BOLDLY: Timeless Prayers

Father, as we read the demise of Gideon's household, help us to see what you are saying to each of us about what we are truly worshipping in our lives. Make us wholly Yours. No props.

PHOTO: A look through a camera lens at Mount Rainier. Do we see clearly or do we give in to magnify those things that make us feel safe, feel comfortable, feel successful in knowing God. Remove the props, O Lord!

3 comments:

When I was in my 20's, I remember thinking to myself what was wrong with the Israelites??? God does mighty things for them and they forget Him and turn away from Him. It took a few years for me to realize I am an Israelite. In some ways I forget Him and turn away from Him too. Lord forgive me.

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10,000 Little Moments

"The transforming work of grace operates in 10,000 little moments more than it does in a series of two or three life-altering events." (Paul Tripp). Tripp writes that to really change and become a better person this year, we will: Confess in 10,000 little moments of conviction; Be Courageous in 10,000 little moments of faith; Obey in 10,000 little moments of decisions; Choose the Kingdom of God over the Kingdom of self in 10,000 little moments of desire. Our God will be present through His Word in all the moments of our days this year. Let's find Him in ways we never imagined. Psalm 139:16 says that all your days, all your moments this year, are ordained by a very Good God. Read the Book with us---and this Book will read you.

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Changed In A Moment. Hebrews 11:8. From One Degree to Another. 2 Corinthians 3:18.